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“It is,” I growled. “You’re the one talking while you should be waiting for the signal.”
His jaw clenched, but he went back to looking through the binoculars to wait until Amaros stepped out of the vehicle. I wasn’t going to admit it, but my brother was right. Kali was in my head. Leaving her on my father’s property was something I never fucking wanted to do. One rogue vampire could decide he didn’t want to follow my father’s orders, and she was a sitting duck. I had confidence that she could protect herself, but I didn’t want to chance it.
“What the hell…” Viggo trailed off, his voice full of shock.
My spine straightened. “What?”
“Uh—nothing. It’s all good. They opened the armory.” His voice was back to normal, but I knew him well. He was hiding something. “It’s time. Right now.”
Giving him a look, I raised the flare gun, shooting it off. The flare went high in the sky, and I watched as the bright light fizzled out. By now, PARA knew the vehicle had vampires in it. Amaros and whoever he’d brought with him would have to fend for themselves for exactly two minutes.
The air suddenly rang out with loud booms. The explosions shook the ground, and I didn’t need the binoculars to see the parts of the wall start crumbling. As I climbed down the branches, I counted the explosions. When it got to twelve, the noise halted. In its place was the siren that PARA must have set off. A warning to the people in the city that they were under attack. It wouldn’t help them now.
“Ready?” Pax asked as he appeared from the darkness.
I grabbed the backpack I’d placed at the base of the tree and slung it over my shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Viggo was right behind me, and we ran to the destroyed part of the wall closest to the tree we’d been in. The smoke was still billowing around, and there was a small fire, but we avoided it as we climbed over the rubble. A few humans ran through the streets, but most were still inside their homes since it was the middle of the night.
PARA was coming out in droves as we made our way toward the armory. But they weren’t the only ones with large numbers. Vampires were climbing into the city from every weak point we’d just blown up. Hundreds of them. Soon the screaming started as vampires began attacking. Bullets whizzed by as PARA members tried evening the playing field.
One masked man set his sights on me, and I ducked when he took aim. His next bullet hit me in the side, and I gritted my teeth as I ran through the pain. Viggo pulled ahead, rushing at the guy and ripping his neck protection off after he knocked the gun from his grip. The man screamed as Viggo bit into his throat, not stopping until there was zero chance of him getting back up.
We weaved through the fighting as the siren continued to blare. The vampires were here to fight PARA members. My brothers and I had a different goal to accomplish. The armory came into sight, and I spotted Amaros throwing a body through the air before he ducked inside.
“Left,” Pax said once we hit a fork in the road.
Viggo and I followed Pax until we were standing in front of a fortified door. Dropping to my knees, I opened my bag and carefully took out the explosive. I hooked it up to the door, and we backed away before I hit the button to detonate.
The door shattered, and we forged inside. My head was on a swivel, and I pulled out my own gun, knowing PARA would appear any second. This was their main building, and it was never left without security.
A separate siren was ringing in this facility, and Pax led the way as we searched for the room we needed. A group of PARA members appeared at the end of the hall, and we exchanged fire until Viggo threw a smoke bomb, affecting our sight, but not nearly as much as humans. We disappeared down another hall, and Pax nodded toward the door on the right. I placed a small explosive device on it, and the second the door was blown, Pax ran inside while Viggo and I stood guard.
“So far so good,” I muttered, pulling the wooden bullet out of my side. I hissed out a breath as I dug it out, but the second I did, my skin began closing up.
“Right,” Viggo mumbled. “All according to plan.”
His sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. “You know something I don’t?”
Before he could respond, the lights were cut off, leaving the building in darkness except for a couple of emergency lights. Now we’d have the advantage the next time we ran into PARA.
“Locks are disengaged,” Pax announced as he exited the room. “And there was a blueprint on the wall. We need to go down two floors. Stairs are two halls over.”
We took off, letting Pax lead since he was the one who saw the blueprint. Thanks to the dark, we had the element of surprise when we ran into more PARA members. They had night goggles, but since our attack was so sudden, they didn’t have time to get them before we infiltrated the city.
We rounded the first corner, and I could hear their racing hearts before four men entered the hall from one of the doors on the left. The three of us kept our steps light, concealing our presence until we were close enough to attack. Not wanting to waste any time, I grabbed the closest guy and twisted his neck, snapping it before he realized what was happening. Viggo was much more dramatic, and he made the guy scream bloody murder before killing him. Once they were all dead, we kept going, listening for others.
It didn’t take us long to reach the stairs, and we descended, taking two steps at a time. I couldn’t hear any outside noise, meaning we were underground.
“Over here.” Pax pushed open the door, and we entered the correspondence room.
Letters and mail were how all the cities kept in contact. They didn’t want to risk us listening in on the radio. For the most part, it worked well, since we never knew which trucks carried their mail.
“Anything from and to Project Hope, we need to grab,” I said, repeating my father’s words.
We all began sorting through the piles and files full of letters. It didn’t take long, but it felt like forever when I had no idea what was going on outside. I wasn’t worried about us losing. We’d made sure to include enough vampires that PARA wouldn’t be able to regain control. I was sure that, by now, they called for backup. But these cities were spread far apart. We’d be long gone before reinforcement arrived.
“Got it,” Pax exclaimed, hauling a pile of paper out of a filing cabinet. “Recent too. All from within the year.”
